By Terry McCarthy - Unite print section

FRIEDRICH Hayek and Milton Friedman must be spinning in their graves given that the monetarists have had to accept the heresy of supply-side economics to bail out and quasi-nationalise Northern Rock.
How different is a monetarist view when it comes to other sections of the economy, especially manufacturing.
However, we shouldn't celebrate, although Mervyn King has broken the cardinal rule in relation to the money supply.

The £10 billion subsidy to the bankers is only the tip of the iceberg - billions more will be shelled out to subsidise the private equity spivs, taking the railways and the London Underground as their model.

Fundamental monetarists such as Ruth Kelly will never be convinced of the obvious financial advantages of renationalising the railways this would be an anathema to her and a total rejection of the philosophy behind neo-conservative monetarism,

I've no doubt that the money supply will be controlled in the usual way. Attacks on organised labour, more grief for public- sector workers, cuts in the health service and schools, higher taxes direct and indirect for working people, whilst corporation and wealth tax will be cut, in line with Hayek's theory which has been so slavishly followed by new Labour and, as long as it accepts that ideology, it can never deliver even reformist socialism, it's a contradiction in terms.
Unfortunately, there are many on the left who see recent events as evidence that the capitalist system is about to crumble. This is far from true.

One of the failures of the modern Labour Movement is its reluctance to understand the economic and philosophical tenants of monetarism
Only by opening up a Labour Movement wide debate on this issue can we confront New Labour and put forward alternative economic and philosophical solutions.